Canada: The green faith effect

Solar panels aren’t mentioned in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, so Rev. Margaret Cornish had to write her own blessing for a special dedication service last Sunday.

On the roof of St. Alban’s Anglican Church in Richmond, B.C., she asked that “the blessed sun shine on us and warm these panels, our hearts and this sacred place.”

Solar panels are becoming a common connection for Christian churches, Hindu temples, Calgary synagogues and Toronto mosques as faith groups across Canada act on the so-called Green Rule: “Do unto the Earth as you would have it do unto you.”
Cornish said her solar panels are “an outward and very visible sign that we are deepening our commitment to important environmental issues.”

Congregations are also caulking air leaks, reducing garbage, conserving water, and installing rain barrels, compact fluorescent light bulbs, energy-efficient furnaces and appliances – all in an attempt to live out their common belief that humans need to care for their planet.

“It’s a whole nascent movement, a green faith movement,” said Rory O’Brien, program coordinator of the Greening Sacred Spaces program run by the ecumenical group Faith and the Common Good, that has a network of affiliates in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia. “We were really taken aback by the interest out there.”

In Ontario, Sacred Spaces is involved with 77 congregations, half Christian the other half Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Bahai, Unitarian, Zen, and Hare Krishna.

“People want to be a part of it, they just don’t know how to do it,” added Julie Hrdlicka, Calgary coordinator of Faith and the Common Good. “We’re the middlemen, connecting the faith communities with the experts that do the auditing and the retrofitting.”

The Gazette (Montreal)